Takes place at the beginning of season 7.
Warning: very mild gore.

After nearly ten days of traveling through empty space – and it was a true miracle they were still able of keeping track with the time – Team Voltron desperately needed a break. They were all dying to get up and stretch their legs and be able to look at things not through their lions' windshields. So, when Pidge located a seemingly Galra-free planet, with a bonus of rich flora that would make a respectable addition to their dwindling supplies, they did not waste any time landing there.

Soon enough they decided to split into three groups for the supply collection in order to cover more ground, plus one pair that would stay with the lions in case anything happened. Romelle was the first volunteer, mumbling she was quite fed up with roaming in unknown forests since their little adventure with the Yalmors not so long ago.

"Alright," Allura said and turned to Shiro. "How about you stay with Romelle? It would probably be best for you not to exhaust yourself." Ever since Shiro woke up from his coma, he had spent most of the time sleeping, his body slowly regaining the energy that had been drained from it after the clone's spirit was destroyed.

Shiro smiled and shook his head. "Actually, if you don't mind, I thought about going with you guys. I'm sure it'll do me good to have some fresh air after being cooped up for so long."

"Are you sure?" Keith asked right away, eyeing Shiro warily. "This could take a while. I don't know if you're…" his voice faded, as if he wanted to say "strong enough" but stopped himself from fear of insulting his brother.

"I'll be fine," Shiro reassured. "I've been lying down for too long anyway. I need to walk around."

"But…" Keith persisted, moving uncomfortably in his place.

Shiro sighed and smiled again. "I appreciate your concern, Keith, but you worry too much. I'll be fine. Besides, I'm not going alone. I'm going with Lance here," he pointed at the Red Paladin standing next to him, who jumped in surprise when his name was called, "And I'm sure he'll do a great job watching over me."

Lance felt his cheeks flush and stood as tall as he could, knees locked in and shoulders upright, holding his bayard against his chest like a soldier eager to prove his worth to his commander.

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance, as if doubting his ability to protect their former leader properly, and Lance felt a drop of sweat sliding down his neck. He locked his knees even harder.

"I can stay," Pidge said and touched her glasses. "I'll probably get allergies from all the plants anyway."

Keith huffed out an exasperated breath, realizing he had lost the argument, and Lance sent the Green Paladin a telepathic 'thank you'. "Fine. We'll meet here in one varga. If anything happens, you call us on the comms, is that clear?"

"Clear as daylight, sir!" Lance called and saluted with his bayard arm, nearly hitting himself in the forehead with it. He heard Shiro swallow a snort of laughter and Keith shot him an even more murderous look, muttering something under his breath before leaving with his mother and his wolf at the direction of the woods. Coran, Allura and Hunk went on another direction, not before Hunk sent Lance two motivational thumbs-up, to which Lance replied with a wink and a finger-gun.

Shiro fetched an empty bag and handed it to Lance, his expression amused despite his still too-pale skin and dark circles under his eyes. He looked almost ten years older, especially with that white hair. Lance made a mental note to take a break every fifteen dobashes during their hike.

"Ready to go?" Shiro asked.

"Yep." Lance took the bag and started to walk toward the forest, careful not to walk too fast.

The forest was thick and full of colorful fruit and mushrooms, most of them deemed edible by the biological scanners Pidge had installed on the paladins' armors. Lance and Shiro set about filling their bags (Shiro tied his bag to his waist, so his one arm would be free to pick up food), not exchanging any words other than occasionally pointing out a new plant, and it wasn't long before the silence started to get on Lance's nerves. He had never been good at keeping quiet for more than a few minutes, especially when he was with another person, but… well, Shiro and him hadn't really talked since everything that had happened, and Lance wasn't entirely sure how to approach him anymore. To be honest, he was still pretty shocked by Shiro's choice to go with him to gather supplies, as the former Black Paladin has been spending nearly all of his waking moments with Keith and Keith alone.

Lance could understand that. Keith was the closest person to Shiro among their group, considering their long history and the fact Keith had single-handedly destroyed Shiro's evil clone (Lance still shuddered thinking about it). It was natural for Shiro to seek his company. However, it only made their hike even more awkward, and Lance found himself wishing there was someone else who would have gone with them and helped break the ice.

Sooner than later the bags were half full, and Lance started to wonder whether Shiro would be able to carry his all the way back. Normally the older boy would run miles with one paladin under each arm like they weighed nothing, but considering Shiro's breath became labored after climbing a short, practically non-existent slope to reach a group of bushes, Lance doubted his ability to do so in his current condition.

Well, at least he seemed to enjoy being outside. His face had a little more color now, and the light afternoon breeze ruffled his hair in a way that made him look a bit more like the young, passionate man he used to be, and not like…

Lance shook his head, angry at himself. No. He should not be thinking those things about Shiro. This was still their Shiro. Allura had brought back his spirit from the Astral Plane. He just needed to rest, to get used to his body again.

And Lance would be the lousiest friend in the universe if he questioned Shiro's chances of recovery. Shiro was stronger than this. They were stronger than this.

"Is everything okay?" Shiro's voice shook him off his thoughts. Lance yelped in surprise and stumbled, nearly face-planting the ground.

"Y-yes," he sputtered. His face burned. "Why… why do you ask?"

Shiro shrugged. "You are very quiet. This isn't like you."

"Huh," was all Lance had to say. He slapped himself mentally. Ah, to Quiznak with that. "Well, I was just wondering why you picked me of all people to go look for supplies."

Shiro quirked an eyebrow. "You don't like having me around?"

"What? No!" Lance cried out. Brainless idiot! "It's just… I'd expect you to go with Keith, that's all. He seemed pretty worried about you."

Shiro sighed, and Lance was almost certain he saw his eyes cloud for a moment. "I know he's worried about me," he said. "Which is why I think it'll be good for him to not look after me for a while. Things have been hard enough lately; he could use a break." He smiled sheepishly. "And I've got to say, it is pretty nice to walk around without someone watching me like I'm going to drop dead at any second."

Lance nearly choked at the last sentence. Wow, Shiro's humor got dark. But again, he guessed it only made sense for someone who had been literally back from the dead. "Got it," he said with a tentative smile. "I mean, Keith can be pretty uptight sometimes, am I right?"

"Absolutely." Shiro frowned. "But you probably shouldn't tell him that."

"Are you crazy? He'll run me through with his sword."

Shiro chuckled, and Lance felt his chest grow lighter in an instant. "Well, if you don't mind bearing with me for a bit longer, I saw a really interesting tree over there and thought we could check – "

He was cut off by a sudden, deafening roar, followed by the sound of leaves being squashed and branches torn off tree trunks. Both Shiro and Lance's heads snapped at the direction of the noise, eyes wide with terror.

"What… what was that?" Lance asked in a very high voice.

The answer came a tick later in the shape of a… well, Lance could only describe it as a super ultra mega huge space bear, that emerged from the woods a few feet from them, its claws glistening in the golden light that managed to pierce through the thick foliage.

It did look an awful lot like a bear, only twice as big, with six legs and six eyes, three at each side of its enormous head. It stared at them for a moment, then threw its head back and roared again, exposing a set of nasty-looking fangs. Judging by how bloodshot all of its six eyes were, it was unlikely it came there to kindly offer the paladins its assistance in reaching some of the higher branches so they can collect more food.

"AAAAHHHH!" Lance didn't even care how unmanly his scream sounded when he dropped the bag of fruit and grabbed his bayard in both hands, legs wobbling as if he'd just ran a marathon. This creature was hands down the scariest thing he'd ever seen, and he'd seen some scary shit in his life, having fought fleets of Galra and druids and whatnot.

The creature gave him an unimpressed look, then turned to Shiro, roaring again and trampling the ground with its massive paws. Shiro did not waver though; he got into a fighting stance right away, left arm stretched forward and ready to strike.

Lance's heart sank. There was no way Shiro could fight in his condition. His body was still weak, and even if it was healed – he still had only one arm, his human arm, not the Galra one who could turn into a weapon. He was completely helpless against this monster, who could finish him off in one, clean blow.

Lance greeted his teeth, fingers tightening around the handle of his rifle. Like hell he would let that happen.

"Hey! Butt-face!" he yelled, desperately trying to draw the creature's attention. "Over here!"

The creature turned one set of eyes to Lance. Drool pulled at the base of its teeth. Lance gulped, trying very hard to stop the trembling in his hands.

"Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you," he continued to taunt and brought the rifle sight to his right eye. "Instead of eating us, how about you get a little taste of that?" he pulled the trigger, aiming straight at one of the creature's eyes.

He missed the shot – the creature pounced at the last second and the shot went through its shoulder, which apparently did little to unsettle it – and Lance barely managed to roll out of its way before it landed on a bush behind him, flattening it like a pancake.

"Lance, what are you doing?!" Shiro cried as Lance regained his footing.

"Get out of here!" Lance called back. "I'll distract him while you get the others!"

"Are you out of your mind? There's no way I'm leaving you – " his speech was interrupted again by an ungodly roar. The creature got back on its feet, looking even more furious than before. Lance shot it again, this time hitting one of its left eyes. The creature screeched in pain – Lance started to fear his ears were going to ring permanently at this rate – but didn't budge. One of its paws whipped forward, missing Lance by inches as the latter somehow managed to duck and roll in time.

Lance grunted as he landed in the dirt again. Hitting all six eyes could take forever, especially when he had to dodge the creature's blows and fix his aim every two seconds. There had to be another way to beat this thing.

In the corner of his eye he caught Shiro picking up a large rock in his left hand and raising it above his head. Before Lance had the chance to shout a warning, he threw the rock at the back of the creature's head. The creature snarled in fury and swept its tail – wait, it had a tail, too?! How come Lance hadn't noticed that until now?! – at Shiro, hitting him in the chest. Shiro cried out and flew backwards until he hit a tree trunk – Lance flinched at the audible thud – and slipped down, legs sprawled on the ground and face scrunched in pain.

"Shiro!" Lance screamed. His blood boiled. Nobody was allowed to lay a finger – or a tail – on Shiro and walk out of it alive.

The creature roared again at Lance, exposing the nasty insides of its throat in all their glory, and suddenly Lance had an idea. A crazy idea, but it just might work. Without letting himself think about it a tick longer, he raised his bayard, aimed it right at the center of the creature's open mouth, and fired.

It didn't even manage to scream in pain before its head blew up, spraying the surrounding trees and the visor of Lance's helmet with blood and gore and pieces of things Lance had no will whatsoever to call by name.

"Oh my god," Lance groaned, throwing off his helmet in disgust and covering his mouth with his palm. He tried with all his might to swallow back bile when suddenly he realized the creature's body was tilting backwards in a dangerous angle, unable to stay upright now that it was, well, dead.

It was going to fall.

And land straight on Shiro, who was crouched a few feet behind it and still trying to get up, wincing and holding the side of his head.

"Look out!" Lance didn't even remember running; all he knew was that one moment he was watching the creature's fall with horror and the next moment he was by Shiro's side, pushing him out of the way.

He barely managed to look up before a mass of several hundred pounds smashed into his back and sent him flying to the ground.

He must have blacked out for a few seconds, because when his senses came back to him – and Quiznak he wished they hadn't, because every inch of his body was flaming with pain and he could barely breathe because something was crushing his windpipe and he was pretty sure something in his back was broken – he could make out Shiro's face towering over him, white with panic.

"Lance, Lance, can you hear me?" Shiro asked frantically. He brought his hand to Lance's face but refrained from touching it, perhaps in fear of aggravating a head injury.

"Ugh..." Lance croaked. "I can – oh crap." His eyes flattered close, having decided talking was too much of an effort. He tried to move an arm, a leg, anything, but apparently he was completely pinned down. By a headless corpse, he realized with repulsion and had again to fight back nausea.

"Hold on, I'm calling for help." He heard Shiro turn on his comms. "Guys? Anyone? I'm sending you my and Lance's coordinates. We need some help here, ASAP."

"What happened?" Keith's strained voice rang almost immediately. "Did something happen? Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay. It's Lance who isn't doing so well." Shiro cast Lance a worried glance. "I'll explain everything later, just... be here as fast as you can. And bring a lion. We need, um... to remove something heavy."

There was a moment of confused silence before Keith replied, "Alright. We're on our way."

"I'm already going to wake up Green," Pidge's voice chimed in. "I'll be at your place in two or three dobashes."

"Excellent. Thanks, guys." Shiro returned his attention to Lance. "Help is on the way. Just hang in there a bit longer."

"S-sorry." Lance managed to choke out. He tried again to shift his position, but his back screamed in response and he stopped, biting his lip to hold back a whimper.

Shiro let out a hysteric laughter. "What are you apologizing for? You just saved my life." He ran a hand through his hair. "Seriously, I don't know what would've happened if you weren't here. You fought this thing off all by yourself." There was a bitterness to the last sentence, as if he was angry at himself for not helping more.

"Couldn't let anything happen to you," Lance wheezed. "Keith would've murdered me."

Shiro smiled sadly. "Come on, buddy. You know Keith cares about you, all of you. He would never want you to get hurt."

"Mmm..." was all Lance could say. His eyelids drooped again. He wanted to sleep. The pain was slowly fading into more of a numbing sensation, and while Lance knew at some corner of his mind he should be worried about it, he was simply too tired to care.

"Hey. Eyes on me. Come on," Shiro tapped Lance's cheek gently and Lance forced his eyes open. "Pidge is going to be here any minute."

"Sh'ro..." Lance slurred. He started to feel lightheaded, probably from lack of oxygen.

"What, buddy?"

Lance leaned into Shiro's touch. "I'm glad you're okay. Couldn't... couldn't lose you again."

Shiro smiled again, eyes moist. "I would never want that, either."

"Back when we were… when we were… at the Astral Plane, all of us," Lance continued with great effort, "You called me, and I… I didn't…"

"Lance, it's okay, you really don't have to – "

"I didn't do anything," Lance panted. "I didn't help you… when you n-needed me. So, I'm glad I… I finally made things right… between us."

Shiro coughed thickly. "Things have always been right between us, Lance," he said, his voice tight. "Don't worry. You did great." He rubbed the tanned cheek with his thumb in gentle circles.

The movement was extremely comforting and Lance would have happily extended this bonding moment if he hadn't felt like his lungs were going to explode. Fortunately, the moment was interrupted by the loud roar of engines, and when Lance rolled up his eyes, he caught a glimpse of something green and metallic hovering over the trees, leaves rustling as they swayed in the wind.

The next few minutes were a blur. Lance felt a massive weight lifted off his body, and let out a choked scream when all the pain kicked back in with vengeance. Then there were footsteps, and yelling, and more hands on his face, and then the hands moved to his body and tried to flip him over – and that was the moment when the pain simply became too much and he finally sank into the blissful embrace of unconsciousness.

-x-

When Lance opened his eyes, his first thought was that he'd gone blind, as he was only welcomed by more darkness. It took him a few ticks to make out the metallic, weakly lit outline of the Black Lion's inner space.

"Welcome back," Shiro's smiling face popped up above him.

"Whassup," Lance mumbled and gingerly rose to a sitting position. Despite the dark setting, waking up in a cryopod lying down was so much better than being ejected into the infirmary, where he'd stumble and wobble like a drunk penguin until somebody bothered to catch him. Why hadn't they set the pods to be horizontal in the first place? "How long was I out?"

"Four vargas," Shiro said and offered his one arm to help Lance climb out of the pod. "You had some broken bones and a punctured lung, but the pod had no trouble fixing that. It's really a good thing we brought it with us."

"Lucky me." Lance shivered at the thought of hanging around space with a punctured lung. "What about you? That thing did quite a number on you, too."

"Oh, no, I'm fine. The armor took it all," Shiro said as he guided Lance to sit on a small bench at the corner of the room. "Just so you know, Keith was really worried about you. Krolia had to drag him from here by force, even after Coran and Allure promised him you'd be fine."

"Oh, that's so sweet of Mullet," Lance cooed. Shiro rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Oh, and Hunk promised soup from some of the mushrooms we collected for dinner."

Lance nodded, not really knowing how to continue this small talk. If talking to Shiro after he had died and come back to life was awkward, talking to him after Lance himself had nearly died was even more awkward. "So... this was an interesting afternoon," he said lamely.

"It sure was." Shiro released a long breath, looking quite embarrassed himself. "And I haven't thanked you properly yet for saving my life."

"Oh, don't sweat it," Lance waved his hand dismissively. "I'm sure you would've done the same thing for me. Actually," his eyes widened in realization, "You already have. Back when Sendak took the castle. Remember? You protected me when I was a useless, unconscious lump, even though it got you captured. So... I guess that makes us even."

Shiro shook his head. "This isn't how these things work, buddy," he said solemnly. "And you were not a useless lump. You saved Coran from that bomb, pushed him out of the way. You know," his voice wavered slightly, "I'm not sure I like this pattern."

"Look who's talking," Lance retorted, then blushed like a tomato. "Oh God, that came out so wrong, I'm so sorry."

Shiro stared at him for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed. "Okay, let's both agree to try as hard as we can not to die from now on, what do you say?"

Lance hummed and brought up his left arm to shake Shiro's. "Sounds like a good deal." His face softened. "Hey, Shiro?"

"Yes?"

Lance brought his other arm and wrapped Shiro's fist with all ten fingers. "It's good to have you back. Honestly."

The corner of Shiro's eyes crinkled warmly as he intertwined his own fingers with Lance's and squeezed gently. "It's good to be back."

"And it was really nice hanging out with you today," Lance said. "Well, before we were almost eaten by a monstrous space bear, of course. We should do it again sometime soon… minus the space bear part."

Shiro chuckled. "Well, it's a long ride home, so I hope we'll have more opportunities for a make-up hangout." His stomach suddenly rumbled loudly and his cheeks pinkened. "Er… sorry about that."

"Dude, I'm after four vargas in cryofreeze, I'm so hungry I could eat you at this point," Lance stood up and stretched his back. "Wanna go check if Hunk's soup is ready?"

Shiro grinned. "Lead the way."

Lance returned the grin, his stomach empty, but his heart full of warmth and content.

The title refers to the first episode of season 7, "A Little Adventure", where our gang got shrunk while looking for Yalmors.

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